Broccoli in a spiced yogurt gravy (Broccoli Kadhi)

I am always looking for ways to include broccoli in my diet! Kadhi is a mildly spiced yogurt gravy that makes a perfect winter evening comfort meal. By playing around with the consistency, you can have it as a soup or side for rice/Indian bread. Pretty versatile, right? 🙂

This recipe is really simple – I have added really finely chopped steamed broccoli to this traditional Kadhi gravy. Because gram flour/chickpea flour is used to make the gravy, it tends to thicken with time. So just in case you are preparing this curry in advance, just dilute it with water and adjust the spices when you reheat. Then it is pretty much ready to go :D. Traditionally, onion fritters are dunked in this gravy, but I wanted to keep it really simplistic! I love broccoli as it is – so I wanted to see if just the veggie added to the gravy could work as a soup! And it did 😀

I love traditional food, but sometimes I add a twist to it just to make it healthier and introduce vegetables in my diet! I know it is pretty hard to switch to eating healthy! I was not into this till some time back, so I totally know that it is difficult 😀 But when I started trying to eat better food, I realized very quickly that all I really care about is the taste of the food! I cannot eat bland food and I like a lot of variety. Before, I started trying out these recipes, I used to think that salads were the only thing healthy! So I was really reluctant to even think about changing my habits! Just getting into the kitchen, taking traditional recipes, changing them a bit to make it healthier and tasty (in a new different way!) – that is what has kept me going 🙂 The transition was slow for me; I experimented a lot and slowly fell in love with different vegetables and their flavors. So if you have always wanted to transition to healthier eating habits but are reluctant to try something new, one suggestion I can give is to make the transition slowly. Change a few things in one recipe or try a small change somewhere else! So if you don’t like broccoli in this gravy, try to add your favorite vegetables and experiment 😉

Ingredients

500 grams broccoli

2 tbsps gram flour (chickpea flour/ besan)

1/2 cup yogurt

pinch of turmeric

1/4 tsp red chilli powder

salt to taste

1 tsp oil

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

generous pinch of hing

2 dried red chillies (optional – You can skip it)

1 tsp grated ginger

Preparation Time: 10 min

Cooking Time: 15 min

Servings: 2-3

Method

Clean the broccoli and chop it into really fine pieces. Steam the broccoli for about 5-6 minutes till they are little soft. Sprinkle some salt before steaming. To cook the broccoli in a pan, please refer notes for details.

Meanwhile, take a mixing bowl and whisk the gram flour, yogurt, turmeric and red chili powder all together. Add salt to taste and some water and mix well to ensure there are no lumps. (I did not measure the water as you can adjust the gravy to any desired consistency!)

Take a medium sized pan. Add 1 tsp oil and let it heat. Add the cumin seeds. Break the red chillies into 3 or 4 portions each and add it to the oil. Saute well. Add the grated ginger and hing and cook for a few seconds.

Now add the yogurt mixture slowly to this tempering. Reduce the heat to low. Add water and adjust the consistency. Add in the broccoli also. Close the lid and let it cook for 8-10 minutes. Keep stirring in between and add water as required.

Cook till the raw taste of gram flour disappears. It changes color slightly and you can easily tell by the taste. Serve hot!

Notes

To directly cook the broccoli in a pan, add 1/2 tsp oil in a medium sized pan. Add the chopped broccoli to the pan. Sprinkle some salt and water and cook on medium heat till the broccoli gets soft. Keep stirring in between and add water as needed.